The Dutchman Must Have An Admiral
by Bl-Air01
Summary: James Norrington has an opportunity to set everything right and change what he's done. For those of you who weren't quite happy with the ending of POTC3. I've reworked the story to remain canon with "On Stranger Tides" without changing previous chapters.
1. Prologue The Death of Norrington

**Title:** The Dutchman Must Have An "Admiral"

**Author: **Bl-Air01

**Rating:** T

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, Disney owns all rights to 'Pirates Of The Caribbean'

**Spoiler:** Minor spoilers if you haven't seen 'POTC3'

**Placement:** A/U during and after POTC3

**Characters:** James Norrington, Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Hector Barbossa, Bootstrap Bill Turner, Gibbs, Davy Jones, Lord Cutler Beckett, and other familiar faces from the 'Pirates' movies.

**Pairings: **Willizabeth, and a little Norribeth

**Summary:** James Norrington has one opportunity to set everything right and change everything he's done. For those of you who weren't quite satisfied with the ending of POTC3.

**A/N: **The story begins mid POTC3 and continues on after the movie. Parts take place in an alternate storyline, A/U. I'd like to thank Genevieve05 for all her help with writing and editing my story, thanks. All your help was greatly appreciated. Please read and review.

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Prologue

As Admiral James Norrington sat in his cabin aboard 'The Flying Dutchman' he could not help but feel somewhat responsible for the predicament Elizabeth was in. While he sat in his cabin she was below deck in the brig. Elizabeth along with the crew of 'The Empress' had been captured earlier and had surrendered to the merciless Captain Davy Jones under the orders of Lord Cutler Beckett. James decided it was his job... No, his duty to save Elizabeth and set things right. James finally made his decision, one he wouldn't regret. He grabbed his sword and made his way below deck to the brig.

_What am I going to tell Jones? He will realize that his prisoners escaped, he's not a simpleton. He'll be furious with me-_

"Who goes there?" asked the raspy voice of one of Jones' crewmen.

"Admiral Norrington," James replied.

"What business do you have with the prisoners, 'Admiral'?"

"I do not answer to Jones' crewmen, you answer to me."

"Well we'll be seeing what the captain has to say about this."

"It was your captain who sent me to retrieve the prisoners."

"We'll see what the captain says," the guard said as he turned his back to Norrington.

Norrington seeing his opportunity knocked the guard out and ran to the brig. He only had moments to spare. He opened the cell door.

"Come with me," Norrington said hastily. The prisoners started at him in disbelief then looked to their captain. "Quickly," Norrington ushered.

Elizabeth gave a nod and her crew shuffled past. She walked to the cell door, "what are you doing?"

_What am I doing? _He wondered but responded instead with, "Choosing a side."

_The Empress' _crew ran about in a mad confusion. Norrington pointed to a cannon port. "Through there," he instructed. He ran past the sentry who said.

"Wot you doin' der? I 'eard dem der noises. 'oo you tink you are?"

"I'm Admiral Norrington, stand down."

"I don answer de no a'miral."

With that Norrington grabbed a hanging lantern and smashed it over the sentry's head, thinking, _I'll lose my position for this, but I couldn't live with myself if I left her to Davy Jones._ He ran out onto the transom. Suddenly he heard from behind some squabbling. He looked to the side of the ship and saw the first of the crew hanging on with one arm, waving his other, speaking a language Norrington didn't understand.

"Come on," Norrington instructes, waving the crew along. Suddenly Elizabeth hoped the rail and stood before him. "Do not go to Shipwreck Cove. Beckett knows of the meeting of the brethren, I fear there may be a traitor among them," he warned his love.

"It's too late to earn my forgiveness," Elizabeth replied coldly.

"I had nothing to do with your father's death," he reassured her. "That does not dissolve me of my other sins," he said then looked away ashamed of the things he had done.

"Come with us," Elizabeth said looking at the ship she now captained. Norrington looked at her surprised. "James, come with me," she said looking back into his eyes.

Norrington thought about it for a moment. This was his opportunity to redeem himself.

"Who goes there?" He heard a voice unfamiliar to him call from above.

He grabbed Elizabeth's arm and pushed her to the railing. "Go. I will follow."

"You're lying," Elizabeth said.

He looked at her and turned. "Our destinies have been intertwined, Elizabeth, but never joined," he said then kissed her. "Go, now," he pushed as he turned back to watch for the crew of _The Dutchman. _Elizabeth started climbing as Bootstrap Bill rounded the corner. "Back to your station sailor," Norrington instructed pointing his sword at the man.

"No one leaves the ship," Bootstrap replied and pointed to Elizabeth.

"Stand down. That's an order."

"That's an order," Bootstrap repeated. "Part of the crew, part of the ship. Part of the crew, part of the ship. Part of the crew part of the ship..."

"Steady man."

"Part of the crew, part of the ship! All hands, prisoner escape!" Bootstrap Bill immediately sounded the alarm. Norrington pulled out his gun and pointed it at Bootstrap.

"Belay that," Norrington ordered.

"James!" Elizabeth shouted from behind him. He turned to see her worried expression. She started to climb back. He couldn't allow her to climb back to certain death and so, as a last effort to help save Elizabeth he shot the rope between _The flying Dutchman_ and Sao Fang's ship, _The Empress_, now captained by the newly instated pirate lord Elizabeth Swann, letting it fall to the ocean below. As he turned back to Bootstrap he felt the cold sting of a metal blade slice into his stomach. "James no! No!" He heard shouted from below. He fell back against the rail and slid down to the deck. A number of crew members surrounded him.

"The admiral's dead..." each repeated one after the other, but Norrington heard from the dead of the night a dull "Thud, click... Thud, click..." which made all manner of life on board shudder.

As Davy Jones pushed through the crew and emerged around the corner of his cabin and grunted.

"To the captain's cabin!" One of Jones' crew yelled.

The crew disappeared and Davy stooped to Norrington's level, "James Norrington," he chimed in a fake respectful manner. "Do you fear death?"

And with all his strength he made one last movement and plunged his sword into the heartless cavity, the chest of Davy Jones. And as he slipped away from this world he faintly heard Jones' voice.

"I take that as a no."

Then all was silent and faded to black.


	2. Chapter 1: The Locker

Chapter 1: The locker

All was cold. Norrington opened his eyes to see a world tipped on it's side.

_What happened to me?_ He thought as he pulled himself up. He looked around but he could see nothing but white sand. _Where in the world am I?_

"Well then, finally woke up did'ja, thought you was a goner." Norrington would know that voice anywhere. He spun around and sitting on a barrel, with Norrington's sword in hand and jacket on, was none other than Jack Sparrow.

"Oh God it's you..." Said Norrington.

"Well who'd you expect to see mate, Saint Peter?"

"Perhaps it would be better to be dead than to be with you."

"And who says we're not dead? This doesn't look like any place I've ever seen on God's green Earth, and I have seen most of it by the way."

"Because if I was dead and this was heaven I wouldn't have to put up with the likes of you."

"Who says you'd be in Heaven... with all the sins you've committed... against me," with that Jack's face morphed into Elizabeth, "and me, or did you already forget that." and just as quickly as it had morphed, it transformed back to what it had been originally.

"Elizabeth... The Empress... did she escape?"

"Well how should I know? Do I look like some sort of clairvoyant, mate? Do you see any crystal balls, and other trinkety's? No, I'm just the sum of all your fears..." Then the sky turned dark, clouds rolled in, Norrington looked about, he was in Port Royal, on the day of Will and Elizabeth's marriage, the day Beckett had taken them prisoner, he saw a line of blood trickling down from where they had found Elizabeth.

"Oh God no... Elizabeth!" he sprinted for the courtyard. He arrived, and threw open the doors only to see Elizabeth back on, Will lay dead at her feet. He ran toward her "Elizabeth!" suddenly a sword jutted out of her back, Norrington stopped in shock.

A face peered out from behind her, but it was hidden in darkness.

"Who are you!?" Norrington demanded

"Don't you already know... I doomed Elizabeth to a life of pain and suffering", with that the darkness on the face retreated, and Norrington was staring at himself. He drew his sword, and charged at the mirror image, but suddenly he was in the desert again.

"Put me back there he killed her!" Norrington screamed

"Now now, we don't listen well do we mate, that was just one of your greatest fears." said Jack

"But it was so real..."

"About as real as this!"

Suddenly Norrington felt cold steel running through his back, he looked down and saw a sword emerging from his chest, with a last effort he spun around with his sword still in hand, and tried to decapitate Jack, but he disappeared in a cloud of smoke as soon as the sword touched him, and the sword through Norrington did the same. Norrington looked down expecting to find his death wound, but instead saw nothing.

"Haven't you figured it out yet," whispered a voice in his year, he jumped up and spun around, startled, " nothing here is real."

"So you...?"

"I'm currently sailing into shipwreck cove, where I plan on coaxing the pirate lords to run away, so I can take the thump-thump, poke the thing through with me cutlass, and control the Dutchman therefore making myself immortal, and therefore ruining all of your efforts."

"Right... so why are you here?"

"Well this place is where old squirmy-beard up there, sends those he don't like, thing is, the thing they hate the most is what haunts them down here. Strange that you and I were haunted by the same thing."

"And that would be?"

"Why, me of course."

"You?"

"Yes, but we won't get into that for now. For now you're stuck here."

"But Sparr-" Norrington turned around to see he was on the deck of the pearl with a crew of pirates running about.

"You'd best get used to this mate." Said jack before wheeling on spot and starting for the captain's quarters.

"Sparrow! Get back here at once!" Norrington demanded.

"Captain... Jack Sparrow. We're on my ship, which means you'd better start making your way by swabbing the deck" Jack said in a proud tone.

"With what?"

"I don't know, your hair, and spit for all I care, I've got a bottle waiting for me in the cabin." and with that he shut the door.

Norrington stood looking at the cabin in disbelief.

"Well, are ya goin' ta stand there slack jawed and gawkin' all day, or are ya goin ta help me win back the cap'n's appreciation?"

Norrington turned round to see a face unfamiliar to him, a man about his height, or a little taller, wearing a large hat with numerous holes, and a giant feather sticking out. His face was grimy, and had the lines of a man who had experienced much. He had a scraggly beard, and wore filthy clothing. He was on his hands and knees and was scrubbing the deck with water, blacker than the black oak the ship was comprised of.

"Well if yer not starin' at the door yer starin' at me, Barbossa's me name, and if ya want to survive here fer long you'd best be helpin' me."

Barbossa tossed Norrington a rag. Norrington looked round and thought whatever I do, I've gotta find a way out of this place.


	3. Chapter 2: Norrington's Punishment

**Chapter 2: Norrington's Punishment**

Norrington furiously knocked on the captain's quarters, "We've finished the Deck, Sparrow."

"Captain Jack Sparrow", came a slightly annoyed reply from inside.

"We've finished the deck… Captain" Norrington said sarcastically.

With that the door swung open, with Jack right behind it. He'd removed his jacket and hat, and was holding a bottle in his hand. He was obviously drunk, "Good job mate, looks clean as dirt, now you can clean out the ships facilities, oh, and I've left a little something in there for you." James tried to interject, but Jack continued, "Now, where's the other one," Barbossa poked his head out from behind some barrels, "You my friend will help the fine admiral, quite like the term, might use it meself, in his business."

"An' what are we to use to achieve this Captain?" came a condescending voice from Barbossa's direction.

"Why, you're hands of course," replied Jack, matter-of-factly, "now I have to get back to me rum."

That was all Norrington could take. He drew his sword, and ran it through Jack's back. Jack turned around, with the sword still protruding from front and back, and said to James, "That wasn't a good idea mate. Did you forget that, what works up there isn't so… down here"

With that Norrington heard a voice emerge from the captain's quarters, "What happened Jack? You've got a sword straight through you."

James spun around to see a short, pudgy man with large sideburns, but no beard, it could only be one person.

"Mr. Gibbs? Where did you come from?" he asked in disbelief.

"Well, the way your punishment works, James, is that every time you try to kill one of us pirates, another one appears. Not that you could kill us anyway, we're all in your head." Gibbs explained.

"Exactly what he said, now go on, step lively, away to your work." Jack yelled at the men.

With that all three moved to do as they had been instructed. James thought to himself I'll find a way out of this, the key must be I have to do what Jack tells me. I'll find a way to escape, and have my revenge on Jones.

James and Barbossa were nearly finished their work, when James asked what had been on his mind since they started, "So how long do I have to continue this? It's demeaning."

"Well… forever o' course." Said Barbossa a little confused

"Yes, but when will I be set free?" asked James, trying to clarify his point.

"Once yer in the locker, there is no freedom." said Barbossa.

"You mean it doesn't matter if I do this or not?" said James, as he started to walk toward the deck.

"Well, I'd recommend you do it, or there'll be consequences." Barbossa said, trying to stop him.

"What could be worse than being stuck on a ship forever, listening to three mangy pirates?" said Norrington angrily, as he opened the door to the deck.

The deck was abuzz with excitement; there were pirates running about everywhere performing tasks, and at the helm stood Jack. "I told you to listen to me Norrington; this is what happens when you try to run off."

_Great, as if three pirates weren't bad enough, now I have to put up with a crew. I will find a way to escape this place… I have to_.

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A/N: Sorry, I know it's a short chapter, and I know it's been a while, but I'll try to get another chapter up soon. Please review, as I'll take any good ideas I get for future chapters, and I'll give you credit for anything I use.


	4. How To Escape the Locker

As he dipped the brush into the bucket he looked at the thick black liquid that enveloped every bristle. It made a sploosh as he pulled it out, and left thick black strings that seemed to braid together like the ends of a rope. That made him think of how he'd risen from the life of a simple ropemaker in London, to sailing with the infamous British royal navy; Even going so far as to be named admiral of His Majesty's Caribbean fleet. But that was a life half-forgotten now.

As he brought the brush to the thick oaken planks he stared into the bucket, the liquid now settled and so smooth he could see his reflection. It reminded him of the ropes he'd made in the quays on the River Thames to save enough money to buy his mother a birthday gift. A mirror, so she could behold her own beauty. As a boy, James had always admired his mother. He'd never known his father, and only found out after he joined the navy that he'd been a pirate. It was then that he'd swore to right the wrongs his father had done and began a lifelong hunt for the legendary pirates of the seven seas.

He'd tried his best, even having run-ins with the most infamous pirate who sailed the high seas, Davy jones, down to the lowly scum of the ocean bed, sea-slugs like Jack Sparrow, and Hector Barbossa. Men who would trade a life for as little as a bottle of rum; But in the end, it was the heartless scourge who captained the Dutchman who'd taken his life, and robbed him of the peace of death.

_Would my father have been proud of me,_ he thought. _Now that I've gone from captain to Commodore, Commodore to pirate, pirate to admiral, and serving a pirate in the locker, all within a year?  
_

And what of his mother, she'd always said if he wasn't careful he'd end up with a worse fate than his father. It seemed to James there could be no worse punishment than he'd already endured for… he couldn't even remember how long he'd been in this godforsaken place. Every day was the same. Scrubbing the deck of a ship with black tar, already coated so thick it could hardly pass for the wood that once made it. A ship aptly named The Black Pearl.

James' mother had always told him that pearls were a gift from the sea; a gem no mine could yield. She'd said that every pearl held the soul of a man lost at sea. The bigger it was and the brighter it shone the more good that rested within the soul, but James had once come across a pearl as black as jet. It had come from a captain who'd been commissioned by the King to attack the coast of Spain. The man did not wish to part with the gold he'd acquired, and told James he did not care for the trinkets of a lady.

When James showed it to his mother she'd screamed in fear, and told him to take it away, and never to bring it back. She'd told him later that a black pearl was the soul of a pirate, fit only for hell, and would bring ill luck to any who possessed one. And here James was shining the deck of the largest Black Pearl he'd ever seen.

Just as he finished the upper deck and looked down to inspect his work, a boot came into view and stepped right where he'd just finished scrubbing. "You could have at least waited for the tar to dry, before putting your foot right in the middle of it." James Sneered glancing up to see who it was that had ruined hours of work with such a rude gesture.

"You'd be surprised how little yer time matters here in the locker" answered Hector Barbossa.  
"I suppose so, but you of all people should know how utterly monotonous the locker can get." Said James

"Oh should I now?" Asked Barbossa, giving James a look that implied was talking as though he did not understand the irony in his own words.

"I should think so, of the three of us, you've been here longest. Last time I saw you we'd left your corpse on the Isla de Muerta, while I sailed away with our dear Captain as a captive of the Crown." Said James.

"Mr. Norrington-"

"That's Admiral to you Pirate"

"Not any more, not in the locker. So it stays, Mr. Norrington. What makes you believe that I would stay cooped up so long in a place such as this?"

"But you're standing right in front of me"

"Did you not listen when I told you that the locker is only a manifestation of your greatest fears. I believe yours is becoming your father."

"How do you know that!"

"Because, Mr Norrington, I'm only a shade of your memory, you could say an ephemeral visitation from my spirit as it were. Physically I've been absent from the locker for some time."

"Are you saying there's a way out?"

"There's a way out of any cage Mr. Norrington, if you have the key."

"And what key would that be?"

"Seems it's different for every person, I once had a map that I lost in a bet with a man from Singapore. Of course I'd stolen it from him not a fortnight before. This map could show the way to any destination. A clever thing it was, a set of rings, that when aligned in different ways could offer solutions to some of the sea's greatest treasures, and mysteries."

"So that's how you escaped the locker?"

"Have you heard nothing I've said boy. The map was useless if I didn't have it in the locker. I charmed Calypso into releasing my bonds, in promise I'd someday return the favour."

"Then why mention the map?"

"Afraid I can't answer that question boy, you'll need to ask the captain what purpose the map served in his adventures."

"I may do just that."

With that Barbossa turned and climbed the rigging to mend a rip in a sail.

When James had tarred the deck again, he went to the captain's quarters, and knocked on the door.

"Go away, unless you're a pretty woman!" a voice came from inside, reeling from a few too many drinks by the sound of it (though it always sounded like that), followed by silence, and finally, "are you a pretty woman?"

"Afraid not, and if I found one I wouldn't send her to you." James answered.

The door creaked open and into the frame stepped Jack Sparrow, "What do you want, my Pearl should be immaculate. Why aren't you working?"

"I heard you owned a map that could show the way out of the locker."

"Did you, now? I see our scraggly bearded friend has been telling secrets."

"If you have it, why haven't you used it yet?"

"What makes you believe I haven't?"

"Because the last time I saw you, you'd taken a jar of dirt which you thought held a heart, and according to the account from Elizabeth, by the time you realized your error, you were halfway down the throat of the Kraken."

"And I ask you again, what makes you think I haven't?"

"You mean…"

"It's all in yer head, mate."

"Does that mean I can think you away?"

"Well, no, the locker is made so that once your fears take form, much like meself here, they never leave you again. Some even say that they escaped the locker and still are haunted by that they hate most, and speaking from past experience I have to say that's true."

"That's just stories, and wives' tales."

"You might be surprised how many wives' tales are based on half-truths, once heard a wives tale that there was a woman sailing the Aegean Sea who could sing to your soul's content-."

"I don't care. Half-Truths are whole lies my mother once told me. And that still doesn't answer my question of where to find the key."

"Well I'd expect squidbeard to have the key to his own locker, savvy."

"That won't do me a lot of good when he's in the world of the living."

"You really haven't heard what's been going on up there have you."

_I'm going to pick up this story again, I know it's been a while, but hopefully there will still be some interest. I've reworked the story and it will remain canon with "On Stranger Tides", so no needs to worry about that. Be sure to review and let me know what you think._


End file.
